The first 2011-dated strike in a series a five ounce silver coins from the United States Mint will be the Gettysburg National Military Park Silver Bullion Coin which honors the military park in Pennsylvania.
This coin is part of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin™ Program which debuted in 2010 and features five strikes annually showcasing beautiful sites from around the United States and its territories. The series is a companion to the circulating America the Beautiful Quarters® Program, also from the US Mint. However, the bullion coins are struck from five ounces of .999 fine silver making them significantly larger and more valuable than the circulating quarters.
A release date of April 25, 2011 was used for these Gettysburg Silver Coins along with the second bullion strike of the 2011 series, the Glacier National Park Silver Coin. On that day, the US Mint’s authorized purchasers were able to place their initial orders for both strikes. These purchasers serve as distributors for the Mint’s bullion products and obtain the coins in bulk to resell them in smaller quantities for a small premium above the current spot price of the precious metal they contain.
The authorized purchasers wasted no time in snatching up the entire initial mintage of 126,500 of the Gettysburg Coins even leading the Mint to evidently strike a few more as it indicated a total of 126,700 were sold. On Monday, May 16, 2011, the Mint indicated it was sold out of the coins.
The US Mint also produces a collector grade version of these silver coins known as the America the Beautiful Five Ounce Uncirculated Coins.
The coins in all three of these series (bullion, uncirculated and quarter) feature a reverse design emblematic of a selected site of national interest. This particular coin honors Gettysburg National Military Park and thus an image is shown on the reverse of the coin of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument found within the park. The design was completed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) Master Designer Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Phebe Hemphill. Included as well are the inscriptions of GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, 2011 and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
First featured on the 1932 circulating quarter dollar, a portrait of George Washington is found on the obverse of all of the strikes in the three programs. Also shown are the inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR.
Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania
The following information was provided about the military park by the United States Mint on the Mint website:
The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory in the summer of 1863 that ended General Robert E. Lee’s second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy," it was among the war’s bloodiest battles, with 51,000 casualties. It also provided President Abraham Lincoln with the setting for his most famous address.
It was the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, a group of concerned citizens, that first set out in 1864 to preserve the battlefield as a memorial to the Union troops who fought there. The park is well-known for its many monuments and memorials, the majority of which were placed by veterans of the battle. On February 11, 1895, the battlefield was transferred to the federal government as Gettysburg National Military Park (28 Stat. 651).
